THE FRENCH TREATY OF 1778, Recognizing the Independence of the United States. HOW THE GOOD NEWS CAME TO FALMOUTH. BY WILLIAM GOOLD. Early in 1776 it was decided privately by the Congress of the new states to seek assistance from abroad. The public credit was at a low ebb, and it was necessary to convince those from whom assistance was asked, that it would be, in time, for their interest to grant the request, aside from any promise or guaranty of repayment. France was a nation hostile to Great Britain by the long-continued tradition of centuries- a humbled nation, smarting to recover her lost prestige and to console her lost. pride, and she could ill brook to see the new ideas of political liberty with which her heart was throbbing, trampled upon and crushed in the Colonies by her hereditary and victorious enemy. A more mercenary motive might have reinforced these sentiments, for she doubtless regarded the American trade as an object worth striving for. It was natural that the new states should turn first to France among the nations of Europe. Early in 1776, Silas Deane, then, and for two years before, a member of the Continental Congress from Connecticut, was sent by the secret committee of that body to France as a political and commercial agent. He arrived in. Paris in June, with instructions to sound the disposition of the cabinet in regard to the war between the Colonies and Great Britain, and to endeavor to obtain supplies and military stores. Probably Congress had heard from its agents in Europe, of the favorable disposition of the French cabinet and people, and on the 26th of September, 1776, elected Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee to make a treaty of alliance with France, and to rep resent the Colonies at the court of Versailles. Although he was born in Virginia, Lee was educated at Edinburgh, and had studied law at the Temple in London. This experience eminently qualified him for the duties required by his appointment. He had been some time in Europe, and had made frequent visits to Paris, as an agent of the secret service of the Continental Congress. Lee had already made arrangements secretly with the French king to send a large amount of arms, ammunition and specie to the Colonies; but to avoid premature complications with Great Britain they obtained publicity only as a transaction between two commercial houses. The one, "Hortaly & Co." -the house established by aid from the French and Spanish governments as a blind was engaged in loading their ships for America. The only mention of the arrival in America of these ships within my reading, is in the private journal of Brigadier Preble of Falmouth, who was serving as a councilor in the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. The arrival was kept as secret as possible. He writes: April 20, 1777, a ship arrived at Portsmouth with fifty-eight pieces of brass cannon; tents for ten thousand men; clothing for twelve thousand; five thousand seven hundred stand of arms; ten tons of powder; and twenty-four officers of artillery. She had three months' passage. July 7, Captain Claxton came before the board, and informed that he arrived from France yesterday, and brought seventy barrels of powder; forty chests of arms; ten tons of lead, and sundry anchors, cables, chains and rigging he took out of several vessels he had burnt. Monday, July 21st, the council met at ten o'clock. The board received a letter from Dr. Franklin in which he informs that he has purchased for the States two hundred and five brass four pounders, with their carriages, traces for the horses, shot, &c., twenty-six brass mortars, a great number of shell, thirty thousand fusils [light muskets], and that a number of expert officers of artillery and engineers, with a vast quantity of powder, has been shipped and gone to America. This letter is dated the 27th of May last. A letter from Mr. Deane, and one from Mr. Lee was was received, who writes very encouragingly, that a quantity of cables, anchors, sail cloths, hats, and coarse linen from Spain, were shipped for America. Rochefontaine, who was sent to Portland by the war department in 1793, and who built the citadel on the hill called Fort Sumner, was one of the engineers sent from France in 1777. I have said that Arthur Lee was already in Europe when in September, 1776, he was with Dr. Franklin appointed to join Silas Deane in Paris, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty of alliance with the French king. Dr. Franklin left Philadelphia as we learn from his letters-on the 26th of October, and the next morning he sailed on the "Reprisal," Captain Wicks, and, on December 3, he landed at Auray in Brittany. The voyage had been a short one, but a rough experience for a man of seventy. Franklin had made visits to Paris in 1767, and again in 1769. On his first visit he had traveled with an Englishman, Sir John Pringle. As commissioner, he arrived in Paris December 12, 1776. He had with him two of his grandsons, and his son, William Temple Franklin, then in his sixteenth year, who acted as his father's private secretary through all the period of his residence in France, which was extended to eight years. At the very moment of his arrival Franklin found himself "the rage" in Paris. He and the other commissioners were received by Vergennes, the foreign minister, as early as December 23, not ostensibly as ambassadors, but as gentlemen to whom the minister wished to show respect. The French archives contain the report made by the police of Franklin's appearance it is dated three weeks after his arrival in Paris and is in these words : Doctor Franklin, who lately arrived in this country from the English colonies, is very much sought after and fêted, not only by the savants, his confrères, but by all people who can get hold of him, for he is difficult to be approached, and lives in reserve, as he is supposed to be directed by the government. This Quaker wears the full costume of his sect. He has an agreeable physiognomy; spectacles always on his eyes; but little hair; a fur cap is always on his head. He wears no powder, but has a neat air; linen very white, and a brown coat make his dress. His only defence is a stick in his hand. If he sees our ministers it is at Paris not at Versailles at court-at night and in the greatest secrecy. The English minister, Lord Stormont, it was said, as soon as he learned that Franklin had arrived in France, sent a note to Vergennes, threatening to leave without ceremony if the chief of the American rebels was allowed to set foot in Paris. John Adams arrived in Paris April 8, 1778, in the American frigate "Boston," having been appointed to succeed Silas Deane. The latter was recalled by a resolution of Congress passed November 21, 1777, but which Deane did not receive until March, 1778. He came home in the "Languedoc," the flagship of D'Estaing, in April. Deane had been very profuse in his promises, and had exceded his instructions in his engagements of engineers. Congress being embarrassed by his contracts recalled him. Although Dr. Franklin's principal object, on his arrival in France, was to secure aid to prevent the colonies from being crushed by England, yet he found time for scientific pursuits. Paris was occupied at the time in welcoming Voltaire. He had been exiled for some years, and had just returned, at the age of eighty-four years. His comedies were revived at the theaters, and he was everywhere idolized by the citizens. Franklin, the American commissioner, won an equal share of the popular favor. He was publicly presented to Voltaire at a meeting of the Academy of Science, where the two great men were fairly obliged, by the expectancy of the audience, to embrace and kiss each other. Voltaire died a few months later. Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose work in literature had impressed France and Europe as no other author but Voltaire had done, died soon after him. Undoubtedly a larger part of the courtiers at Versailles were strongly in favor of war with England, which open assistance of the Colonies by France would bring on; but the King, Louis XVI, then only twenty-three years old, and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, were for peace, and the ministry hesitated. The correspondence of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, with her daughter, Marie Antoinette, and with Merey, the Austrian minister at the French court, has been published. In this Marie Antoinette alludes to the force under Rochambeau to be sent to America. She does not allude to the American war itself, nor to the envoys until March, 1778, when she says: "The King has directed that the king of England shall be told that he has made a treaty with the Americans. My Lord Stormont receives on Sunday the orders of his court to leave France. It seems as if our marine, about which much has been done for a long time, will soon be in action. God grant that all these movements may not bring on war on the land." The news that General Burgoyne had surrendered at Sara toga in October, reached France on December 4, 1777, some days after negotiations were opened between the French ministers and the American commissioners, looking toward a commercial treaty between the two nations, and also a treaty of alliance. Mightily did this victory weigh in favor of the Americans at the French court. Unaided by any foreign power, the Americans had defeated and captured a well-trained army of six thousand men, led by experienced commanders. King Louis then cast off all disguise, and informed the American commissioners that the treaty of alliance and commerce already negotiated would be ratified, and that it was decided to acknowledge the independence of the United States. The king had in the meantime written to his uncle, the king of Spain, urging his co-operation. By a family understanding of the Bourbons, the king of Spain was to be consulted before such a treaty could be ratified. The treaty of alliance with France was signed at Paris, on the sixth of February, 1778. Although the French king assured the commissioners that no advantage would be taken of the situation of the Colonies, yet some of the terms acceded to by the commissioners were considered hard. The much talked of French Claims originated in depredations on American commerce by the French under pretext of retaliating against the States some infractions of this treaty. It is possible that the United States might finally have won their independence if assistance from France had not been obtained, but those who have studied the situation with the greatest care are not of this opinion. The Colonies were in a great strait. The lives of the leading patriots were at stake upon the success of the struggle; and the commissioners were ready to bid high for assistance, if our promises were accepted as an equivalent. What was asked of France would cost her much treasure, directly, and an inevitable war with England. On the other hand the most objectionable feature of the treaty, to the Americans, was the provision obliging them to allow French privateers to shelter themselves in our ports, secure their outfits there, and be protected in so doing. To perform to the letter this obligation in the treaty might involve the Colonies in war with all the enemies of France. As the guaranties of our independence by France were of |